How many Roma people live in Romania?
There are about 630,000 Roma people officially registered in Romania, but the real number could be much higher as the local authorities estimate more than 1.1 million Roma people, according to an analysis of the European Funds Ministry (MFE).
The estimated number represents over 5% of Romania's resident population, which has fallen under 20 million in recent years.
The Roma population is unevenly distributed among the counties, the report shows. Officially, there are 443 localities where the Roma population exceeds 10% of the total, but the estimations show that there might be some 580 such towns and villages.
In terms of identity documents, the official data say that there are 2,799 Roma people without a birth certificate and a total of 147.969 citizens without ID cards. However, the county prefect institutions estimate that there are 5,598 people without birth certificates and 159,248 without identity cards.
Almost 300,000 Roma people officially benefit from the guaranteed minimum income across the entire country, but estimates show that the number of beneficiaries may be double, at close to 600,000, according to MFE.
Many Roma people prefer not to declare their ethnicity due to discrimination.
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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com
